Preparing nursing students for contemporary practice: restructuring the psychomotor skills laboratory.

The restructured laboratory experience offered a safe environment that supported student experimentation with psychomotor skills and self-initiated approaches to problem solving. Restructuring psychomotor laboratory experiences with emphasis on communication and conceptualization of principles supported students to begin addressing clinical problems with flexibility, creativity, and the premise for lifelong skill acquisition. Students who have skills that extend beyond technique will inevitably be better prepared to meet the demands of health care systems and patients now and in the future.

Nurses' description and evaluation of reproductive health counseling for adolescent females.

Nurses have been providing reproductive health counseling to adolescent females for over 20 years. Yet, we found no studies in the nursing literature in which the investigator examined the types of reproductive health counseling nurses provide to adolescent females. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine nurses' description and evaluation of the types of reproductive health counseling they used for adolescent females. Five registered nurses, with at least 10 years experience in providing reproductive health counseling to adolescent females, were interviewed using a semi-structured guide. Four areas were explored: type of information provided, barriers to providing counseling, adolescent female decision-making capacity, and nursing recommendations. Two general themes emerged from the respondents' evaluations: frustration and unused potential of nurses to affect the reproductive health of adolescent females, and the inappropriateness of current reproductive health strategies for adolescent females.

PIP: In response to a lack of research on the topic, this study gathered data from nurses in the US on the types of reproductive health counseling (RHC) they offer adolescent females. A review of the literature provides background information on the use of contraceptive/prophylactic technology by adolescents, on the dictates of informed consent, and on the empowering value of RHC delivered by registered nurses to adolescents. The description of the methodology explains that, using a qualitative approach known as naturalistic inquiry, data were collected via intensive interviews with 5 nurses who had at least 10 years of experience providing RHC to adolescent females. Data analysis followed a case study approach. As the respondents evaluated their RHC efforts, they generally reported the inappropriateness of current RHC strategies used for adolescent females and their frustration with the unused potential of nurses to affect the reproductive health of adolescent females. The nurses recommended that RHC could be improved if careful attention were given to nurse-patient interaction, staff education, adolescent empowerment education, and adolescent mentoring. They also thought that creation of adolescent clinics would be helpful. The article concludes that additional research is needed on ways to 1) involve parents and increase community investment in youth, 2) determine if the sexual activity of adolescent females is consensual, 3) develop a nursing instrument for fostering critical thinking skills in youth, and 4) examine the value of current RHC strategies.